Amazon or Paizo site itself, which offers the best support?


Paizo General Discussion


This may sound stupid, but I want to offer my support to paizo and want to know, does buying their books and products off amazon offer less support than buying it off their site itself? If so, I'd rather buy it from the paizo site.


cmastah wrote:
This may sound stupid, but I want to offer my support to paizo and want to know, does buying their books and products off amazon offer less support than buying it off their site itself? If so, I'd rather buy it from the paizo site.

I'm sure Paizo would be pleased if you buy their products, regardless of which retailer you use. That having been said, I'd think Paizo has a better profit margin if you order from the Paizo store because there are fewer middlemen to get a cut on that transaction. If you have the option of Paizo store, Amazon web-store, or a local game store, I'd recommend the local game store before Amazon.com or Paizo's own store, to support the local store.

I buy most of my own books from paizo.com for the PDFs included with subscriptions though, and so I don't have to decide which ones to buy and pass over, so I have to find other things to buy at the game store, like miniatures, dice, and more cards. Supporting the local game store is good for the hobby though, because they do more than sell product, they also often help groups organize, or host games, and the existence of the stores also raises community awareness of the gaming hobby itself.


Barring peculiar corner cases. It pretty much has to be better for them if you buy it direct. They've frequently said that they don't really mind though - if you're buying and enjoying their products, they're happy. Whatever works best for you.

There are definite advantages to buying through paizo.com. Although the cost isn't always less here, you generally get things way earlier than if you order through amazon

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

From the economic point of view, it's rather simple. If you buy from Paizo, they get 100% of your money. If you buy from Amazon, Paizo gets, say, 50% of your money, the rest goes to Amazon.


For lower cost, go with Amazon.

For much, much better support, place your trust in the customer carebears and ninjas at Paizo. Plus you get all warm fuzzies from doing so.

I recall someone saying that Paizo doesn't actually get 100% of what is bought at the paizo store, due to distributors. It's kinda weird, and I'm not sure if I trust that assessment. Maybe someone will shed light.

Sovereign Court

Cheapy wrote:
For much, much better support, place your trust in the customer carebears and ninjas at Paizo. Plus you get all warm fuzzies from doing so.

I don't think Cosmo is a ninja so does this mean he's a carebear?


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Cosmos is Cosmo, no more, no less.

run

Sczarni

If you buy direct, you pay a little more, and Paizo gets a little more.

If you buy from Amazon, you pay less, Paizo gets a little less, the product you bought gets recommended more to other amazon users, causing more sales.

You decide which is better for you


For what it's worth, Paizo customer service is top notch. That may be worth something to you =D


Thanks for the tips guys, I'll buy the rest of my books off the paizo site, as for the books I already bought off amazon, I'll go ahead and put up my comments for whatever extra support my commenting offers.

@Wolf munroe
I definitely agree that helping a local store would be great, but I live in a country with no local hobby stores (they sell video games, but no board games/RPGs). Thanks for the insight though :).


cmastah wrote:
I definitely agree that helping a local store would be great, but I live in a country with no local hobby stores (they sell video games, but no board games/RPGs). Thanks for the insight though :).

Understood. :-) Just wanted to throw it out there since you hadn't listed it as an option. If it's just between the two webstores, I'd definitely recommend Paizo.com over Amazon.com in most instances. You pay more with Paizo.com webstore than Amazon (Amazon undercuts everybody and Paizo sets the market price for the product so they can't really undercut it or its contradicting themselves), but Paizo's customer support is great and I've often heard about people pre-ordering a Pathfinder product through Amazon and not receiving it until weeks after the release.

If you keep up with the Paizo messageboards, it's also handy to learn about limited releases and pre-orders from third-party publishers (like Frog God Games) that aren't going to be announced or even carried at Amazon.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

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Cheapy wrote:
I recall someone saying that Paizo doesn't actually get 100% of what is bought at the paizo store, due to distributors. It's kinda weird, and I'm not sure if I trust that assessment. Maybe someone will shed light.

In the hobby industry, publishers generally sell to distribution at 40% of retail price, and distribution sells to retail at 60% of retail price (plus or minus a few percent). So the publisher makes 40%, the distributor makes 20%, and the retailer makes 40% (more or less).

The book trade (which includes Amazon) works a bit differently, and factors like returnability change the discount structure, but all those numbers are still usually within several percent of the hobby standard.

So if you buy a Paizo product from anybody other than Paizo, assume we get about 40% of the cover price. If you buy a Paizo product from paizo.com, we get 100% (minus credit card fees).

If you buy a non-Paizo non-digital product from paizo.com, we're acting as the retailer, so we get about 40% of the list price (unless it's consignment, in which case we make a bit more, but you have no way of knowing what's consigned and what's not). If you buy a non-Paizo digital product from paizo.com, we keep 25% and pass 75% to the publisher.

All that said, we need sales in all of the channels we sell to, so buy wherever it makes the most sense for you.


Thanks for the breakdown, Vic. Your posts are always informative!


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I've ordered dozens of Pathfinder books from Amazon and 95% have arrived in perfect mint condition. With the other 5%, well I can deal with a dinged corner, but have returned the smashed broken miniatures they've sent me. Which just ends up being a hassle.

I will say with great confidence that Paizo consistently takes a lot more care with how they pack your orders.

My Paizo orders have all been received in 100% mint condition. It's amazing how much using a properly sized shipping box helps.

Liberty's Edge

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Here's another vote for Paizo.com over Amazon, if for nothing else than for the stellar customer service I've received.


Thanks guys, I'm certainly happy to hear that paizo gets 100% for their books, I still have many more to get my hands on and I won't deny that I'm certainly happy they carry 3rd party material you can't get off amazon (like tome of horrors, that book offers frighteningly new ways of looking at encounters). I don't mind paying more for my books if it helps paizo :)

I'm looking forward to the advanced races guide!

Paizo Employee Director of Sales

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:)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cosmo wrote:
:)

So the answer is Cosmo is an imp. ;)


Seriously, the customer support from Paizo has been very good indeed. I have been quite satisfied in all my dealings with them.

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